User:Prof.Vandegrift

User:Prof.Vandegrift/2015 Sandbox

The Project
I am working with my students to incorporate academic research on global youth studies more deeply into Wikipedia and to gain valuable feedback from the Wikipedia community. Our course page this semester,Wiki Ed/Drake University/Global Youth Studies (Fall 2015). You can see candidate articles for editing on a page created in 2013 by my online mentor, Gobonobo: GYS article page.

Through our project, we seek to counter systemic bias in Wikipedia. These biases reflect, in my view, the power inequalities that exist offline that result in the uneven distribution of the things needed to be a Wikipedia editor: internet connections, comfort with technology, knowledge about things deemed "legitimate", confidence/sense of entitlement, leisure time, and English fluency. Our class is expanding academic treatment of Global South youth (and particular Global North examples currently not represented) through original articles and article edits. This project and the related course fulfill both the research design/methods intensive requirement for the Drake Sociology Major, the Rhetoric, Media, & Social Change Major, the Anthropology/Sociology Major and Drake University's information literacy general education (Areas of Inquiry) requirement.



Contact me
You may email me here.

How to be a good member of the Wikipedia community
Don't Bite the Newbie

Tips for newbies on everything from editing to etiquette.

Creating a good article or article edit
How to start an article

Finding a useable image: try this tool. I haven't tested this much yet, but check it out if you are needing a useable image.

For final editing: Here are the specific guidelines for creating a Lead section. Note the order of the elements of the lead that need to be placed correctly in the WP coding at the beginning of your edit.


 * Also, fairly picky standards exist for how to format the first sentence.

How to write a better article: An essential piece on how to structure an article for highest quality

Writing towards the intended audience is important:Manual of Style

Technical assistance
If you need technical guidance on Wikipedia programming, references, and so forth, try the Teahouse.

If you are writing a new article Article_wizard.

For WP programming: Wikipedia formatting cheatsheet.

How to insert pictures into Wikipedia articles

Information on how to cite sources in Wikipedia articles

Our project uses peer-reviewed articles as references. We need to know how to cite journal articles.

Personal Scholarly Interests
You can learn more about me at this link.

Youth Studies